Carb addiction.

I'm trying to get my diet in order as I have been at 102kg or thereabouts for a couple of months. Even though I have increased my exercise I have remained at this weight and my goal weight is 85kg so I really need to do something different. A friend of mine is a personal trainer and he told me (after I had been making excuses as to my eating habits) to try out a diet plan for a month. Meat and veggies, no carbs after lunch, no processed foods. I don't really eat processed foods except for a breakfast substitute that I need to get rid of anyway, it is full of sugar and makes me feel like **** in the morning.

Anyway, last night I ate two big steaks and a protein shake after training and although I was not in any way hungry afterwards, I craved something else, chips, bread, something carb-y. Earlier on in the day I had pasta and veggies with sashimi (odd combo, I am aware). Now, I didn't end up succumbing to the craving so hopefully it diminishes in power like other addictions, but I thought I would drop a thread here and ask if anyone else has had this and what they did to counter it.

Should I be avoiding carbs totally throughout the day to break the craving? Keep in mind I am training in the evening.

Or should I just stick out with my current plan of eating protein in the morning, protein and carbs at lunch and protein at night?

If you want to lose a drastic amount of weight AND improve your glucose tolerance, then a drastic decrease in carbs at first is reasonable advice. However, I advise that you plan your carbs around your activity. Essentially, the only time you want carbs in your system is when you're going to use them for fuel RIGHT NOW. So basically, only eat carbs shortly before intense training (not before conditioning work), and try to only eat what you're going to use. The idea being, you want the carbs to fuel you through your training, but have them depleted by the end of training time. Ironically, I just wrote a basic article on this subject in the newsletter I sent out like 20 minutes ago.

Keep in mind that protein can be converted to glucose through the process gluconeogenesis. So you're not going to be totally energy starved throughout the day. But this is better than eating carbs because it costs metabolic energy to engage this process. Whereas if you simply eat the carbohydrates, it doesn't cost you anything.

Like, if someone gave you $100 bucks for nothing, you gain $100 (this is eating carbs). But if you had to pay someone $20 to get $100 back, you only gain $80 (this is gluconeogenesis). Except, in this case the lower number is better.

Also, when I ate the sashimi it didn't touch the sides, so I ate some pasta. The sashimi was a large one, cost nearly $20! So I decided to eat heaps of veggies at lunch, maybe a little pasta, but mainly veggies, eggs and some meat.

I like lean chicken, lean beef, eggs, and fruits and vegetables to make up as much of my diet as possible. I think of it in terms of what Stone Age humans who hadn't mastered agriculture yet would eat. A sense of "purity" I suppose. But the best thing you can do is learn and understand the way things work, then you are able to always make informed decisions.

I have a question about getting carbs from protein. I recently read this very interesting article written by one of our posters. In it he gives brief mention of "rabbit starvation" which I read about also on wikipedia. Apparently on a diet too high in protein, (and too low in both carbs and fat), the body's metabolism increases as energy is taken from the protein, and energy is wasted transforming Ammonia into Uric acid.

Now to clarify, I'm not disagreeing or trying to lecture, I am hoping that someone will help me to better understand. It seems to me that the energy you would get from the protein would not be useful for fuel (as taebo master implies), however the glycogen plus the fat in protein sources might be providing those sources are fatty enough.

again, I am not an expert and I am writing this as I understand or misunderstand it. Would anyone care to clarify for me?

I recently read this very interesting article written by one of our posters. In it he gives brief mention of "rabbit starvation" which I read about also on wikipedia. Apparently on a diet too high in protein, (and too low in both carbs and fat), the body's metabolism increases as energy is taken from the protein, and energy is wasted transforming Ammonia into Uric acid.

Now to clarify, I'm not disagreeing or trying to lecture, I am hoping that someone will help me to better understand. It seems to me that the energy you would get from the protein would not be useful for fuel (as taebo master implies), however the glycogen plus the fat in protein sources might be providing those sources are fatty enough.

again, I am not an expert and I am writing this as I understand or misunderstand it. Would anyone care to clarify for me?

Getting energy from protein is a waste of precious amino acid (in the wild). This is a starvation survival program, and not a good message to send your body. Especially if you are in full training. You can do a brief (2 weeks or so) carb detox, but you are going to need some carbs in the mix for the long term if you are going to sustain any kind of training program without crashing or getting injured. Just try to get them from whole foods like fruits, nuts and (if you're tollerant) lactose.

Now darkness comes; you don't know if the whales are coming. - Royce Gracie